Books for deciding whether business ownership fits you

You like the idea of owning a business, but you have not yet decided whether you want the job that comes with it. Your next book could help you picture that working life, learn the basic language of business or explore it beside other possible careers. Those are different reasons to read.

Infinite Upside is our first recommendation for making ownership concrete. The Personal MBA offers a business primer; Designing Your Life addresses exploration of work and life.

1. Infinite Upside: imagining the owner's actual work

   By Vijay Sheth.

   The opening of Infinite Upside: Building Wealth With Room to Live turns a love of cars into a more complicated working relationship with them. A vehicle becomes something to finance, maintain and make available to a customer. Enjoying the product and wanting to carry its business obligations become separate questions.

   Choose the memoir if you can picture the attractive part of a business but have trouble imagining its less visible work. The owner still finds building and arranging useful agreements exciting. The story leaves room for that enthusiasm while showing what else asks for attention.

   For a student considering ownership, a useful question is: which parts of this job would I want to learn more about even if nobody were impressed by the product? That does not settle whether you should start a company. It gives your interest a more specific subject than the title of entrepreneur.

2. The Personal MBA: building a vocabulary for the whole business

   By Josh Kaufman.

   Kaufman describes The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business as an introductory business primer. His official book site covers subjects including creating value, marketing, selling, delivery, finance and working with people.

   Imagine an invented student who enjoys helping a campus group sell tickets but cannot yet explain how the event's offer, delivery and money fit together. She wants a broad starting point before choosing one specialist subject.

   That gives her a reason to investigate Kaufman's overview. In a sample, look for an explanation you can connect to a small operation you know. Can you describe a business question more clearly afterward, and name something you still need to learn? A primer can organize further study without supplying every skill, local requirement or fact a particular business will need.

3. Designing Your Life: exploring ownership beside other working futures

   By Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

   Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life applies a design perspective to work and life choices. The publisher's description and authorized introduction emphasize exploring possibilities and approaching jobs and careers with curiosity.

   This may be the more useful direction if you understand what a business does but are unsure why you want to own one. Perhaps you are attracted to independence, a particular kind of work or the opportunity to build with other people. Several working arrangements might contain some of those qualities.

   Its career-and-life scope extends beyond starting a company. Choose it when you want to investigate a possible working life before treating a company as the answer. A sample can help you judge whether this exploratory approach invites a question you want to pursue. It cannot tell you in advance which career or business will work for you.

Give the next book a job

Choose the question you want reading to make clearer. You might need to picture responsibility, understand how a business fits together or explore why ownership appeals to you. You do not need to resolve every question before reading, and reading need not become an immediate commitment to launch.

If you have already chosen narrative as your preferred way to learn, use the business-memoir selection. If you already run a business and the financial reports are the obstacle, the company-numbers selection has a narrower purpose.

For a personal account that keeps the attraction of building beside its ordinary obligations, read Infinite Upside. Begin with the opening passage and the question it raises about the owner's job.